Craig Davidson

Friday, April 28th

Popmatters Interview

Hi All,

That Popmatters interview I mentioned a few weeks ago is up. I'm interviewed with my bud Brett Savory, whose book, THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED, is out from Necro Publications (who published my book, THE PRESERVE), as we speak.

Check Brett's book out at: www.necropublications.com

Check the interview out at: www.popmatters.com

Some of my answers are similar to my recent Identity Theory interview, but Canadians have the added bonus of seeing my "tough guy" author photo Norton used in the US. Shameful. Well, not that it's Norton's fault, or the photographer's---you can only work with the materials at hand. Soft lighting would have helped immeasurably.

All best, Craig.

Craig Davidson on 04.28.06 @ 09:33 AM EST [link]

Thursday, April 27th

Bits N' Pieces

Hi All,

Lots of entries lately, due to the fact that my novel was off with my editor going through another stage of revisions. The time off was nice, but today Mr. Fed Ex Man delivered a package to my door with all the new revisions. THE FIGHTER---my nemesis! No, actually the revisions are minor, so I should be able to get through them by next week and sally forth from there.

In the meantime, two bits of information.

1. My buddy Russell Wangersky (go buy his book, THE HOUR OF BAD DECISIONS, because it rocks, www.coteaubooks.com) let me know that Rust and Bone is up for the Danuta Gleed award, which goes to the adjudged "best" debut fiction collection in Canada. Ten thousand smackaroos to the winner, just plain smacks for the losers. The other contenders are:

LADYKILLER, Charlotte Gill
LIMBO, Jacqueline Honnet
MOST WANTED, Vivette Kady
YESTERDAY'S PEOPLE, Goran Simic

Judges: Greg Hollingshead, Dave Margoshes, Judith McCormack (two dudes on the jury certainly helped my nomination)

Awful though it is to admit, I haven't read these collections. I think LADYKILLER would be considered the frontrunner, as it was nominated for the Governor General's award. As with the JOURNEY PRIZE, I really hope I don't win. You might think this either pompous or idiotic or a combination of both, but actually it is stunningly selfish; as you know, my belief is that every person has a finite amount of luck, or at least that luck is cyclical, and I want to save up AAAAAAALLL my luck for THE FIGHTER. So winning this would screw with my luck cycle; everyone wish me bad luck on the Danuta Gleed award! Utter a curse upon my house, a pox upon me...but only for the award. Don't cast an all-purpose bad luck spell. That would be a pretty shitty move on your part, I don't mind telling you.

2. As part of Canadian publicity for THE FIGHTER, a film company called BOOKSHORTS (www.bookshorts.com) is putting together a short promotional film based on the novel. It looks like it will be between 3-5 minutes long, and deal with a fairly violent incident (is anyone at all surprised?) that starts out the book. Filming is going to be done on location in Newfoundland; they're going to be brawling amidst the lobster pots. It will be broadcast, I'm told, on Bravo TV, Book TV, and in public venues (like subway terminals, etc) in major metropolitan areas. So, that's a pretty cool idea. The Bookshorts team, the producer/director/scriptwriter, are all very cool and dedicated people, so I'm jazzed about this. Keep checking in at the bookshorts.com site periodically for developments.

All best, Craig.

Craig Davidson on 04.27.06 @ 06:00 PM EST [link]

New Interview...

...up at IdentityTheory.com. My thanks to Matt Borondy for the wonderful questions.

From the site:

Canadian author Craig Davidson (Rust and Bone) talks with Matt Borondy about beating up Dr. Phil, boxing as self-discovery, the effect of reading his own reviews, and more: "Certainly, when I'm writing stories that feature protracted 5-page dog fights or scenes where an aging porn star's penis pump explodes, I don't expect to be getting a call from the Booker prize committee, which is perfectly alright."

check it out at:

www.identitytheory.com

All best, Craig.
Craig Davidson on 04.27.06 @ 09:38 AM EST [link]

Tuesday, April 25th

How Opal Metha Plagiarized, Got Caught, and Got in Trouble: A Saga

Hi all,

Some of you may’ve heard by now that young—and I mean YOUNG—writer and current Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, whose book, HOW OPAL METHA GOT KISSED, GOT WILD, AND GOT A LIFE, has been found to have “borrowed” heavily from Megan McCafferty’s books SLOPPY FIRSTS and SECOND HELPINGS. I guess it turns out that anywhere from 20 to 40 passages were lifted from McCafferty’s books, altered slightly to prevent Google spot-checks.

Follow this (broken, I’m sure) link to the NY Times story, or google the author’s name to get the full story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/books/25book.html
Craig Davidson on 04.25.06 @ 11:42 PM EST [more..]

Monday, April 24th

Addendum to Latest Post

Hi All,

I've heard back from a few peple who've visited the DiscussitOnline forum, a link I posted below. Since then I've made an edit to the post below, but since it takes awhile to update I thought I would update in a new post.

The site contains not only the Kimbo Slice videos, but probaly 50 or 60 videos under its "STREET FIGHTING" header. These include unprovoked skinhead beatings (are skinhead beatings ever provoked, other than by the inherent idiocy of the beaters?), schoolyard fights, and one very disturbing clip of four of five white kids beating up and black kid.

Now, the emails I've received---two friends and two strangers so far---vary in tone and subject from, "grisly, not enjoyable viewing" to "that site should be taken down." As with a few of my past posts, I'm not sure what sort of a powderkeg I've uncorked until the fuse is already lit, or else exploded messily all over my face.

So, this is yet another warning. The videos are jarring, offensive, and often showcase the worst in human nature.

I'm not sure where I fall on the debate, except to say I don't think it should come down. Certainly the Kimbo Slice vids are fine by me: two grown men come to a monetary agreement and fight. Some of the other videos, especially the schoolkid ones, do have a Lord of the Flies vibe, as one of the emails I received stated. So I'm not going to stand here in a completely impassive stance; my feeling is that, as offensive and depressing as some of the videos are, this is behavior that has gone on, and will continue to go on, for all of human existence; the prevalence of camcorders and the Reality TV-ification of our culture just ensures lots of it ends up on tape, now. Does that mean we need to see it, or have it inflicted upon us? Again, a personal question.

The main argument seems to be, does watching this inspire people to emulate it? Again, I can only come to it from my viewpoint, which is: it disgusts me, terrifies me even, and so makes me not want to ever do anything like it. But again, that's the problem with viewpoints---at least, the assumption your viewpoint is the majority one.

So I will leave the comments section open here. If anyone wants to comment, please do so. And you don't even have to watch the tapes in order to comment; I would think my description gives an accurate and honest appraisal of what you'll find.

Again, a warning. These are violent, perhaps to some vile, images. My apologies to any of those I may have unwittingly offended, though in my defense I would think even my previous post gave an accurate sense of what one might expect to find.

All best, Craig.
Craig Davidson on 04.24.06 @ 01:15 PM EST [link]

Sunday, April 23rd

Kimbo Slice---Not a Man You Want to Mess With.

Hi All,

Well, as some of you know, I am a rampant Internet researcher. I mean, I research in libraries and, y'know, uhhhh...Research-toriums...and all those other founts where people go to sup at the nutritious teat of knowledge, but, overall, I do a lot of research on the Internet. I think this is because, as a fiction writer, it's less about getting accurate facts all the time as it is about just getting a feel for things. I know a lot of people are down on Wikipedia, and I'm sure for good reason, but for simply getting a loose footing on lots of things, Wikipedia is great.

This is not a post extolling the benefits of Wikipedia, though they did agree to pay me a small stipend for mentioning them on my blog. I've been fortunate to line up a few corporate sponsors for this blog. In fact, this entire post is brought to you by Sedgewick's Corn Pads.

Sedgewick's: the ONLY name in Corn Pads.

As some know, my new novel, available on pre-order via Amazon.ca (buy it now, along with Sedgewick's Corn Pads---When you think Corn Pads, think SEDGEWICK'S), deals with the world of underground fighting. Now I'm sure I'll get hammered by people who think it's a FIGHT CLUB ripoff, and I suppose that can't really be avoided. Of course, truth be told, Chuck Palahniuk ripped ME off, then hopped in his time machine and went back ten years, wrote his novel and went on to huge success, and I'm left looking like a rip-off artist. Damn you, Chuck! Damn you and your filthy time machine!

But this is not a post about Chuck Palahniuk, or time machines, or Wikipedia---

COMMERCIAL BREAK:

HUSBAND [Coming home after a long day at work]: Ooooh-WE! My dogs are barking!

WIFE: Are your bunions acting up again, hon?

HUSBAND: You better believe it! Do we have any corn pads?

WIFE: Only generic ones.

HUSBAND: No Sedgewick's brand corn pads? Sweet sassafras! I might as well dip my feet in a pot of bubbling acid!

ANNOUNCER: Buy SEDGEWICK'S. If you don't, you're an idiot. And you aren't and idiot, ARE YOU?

BACK TO REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOGGING:

I was never quite sure such a thing as underground fighting existed; it's sort of like the Yeti: I dearly wanted to believe there was such a thing but, in the abscence of any real proof, I just couldn't quite believe. But thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I now know it does happen. I have video proof.

Meet Kimbo Slice.

32 years old, ex-con, 10 years behind bars for unspecified reasons, 245 pounds, 6 foot 2, and about the nastiest, most fear-inducing man I've seen since a pre-Buster Douglas Iron Mike Tyson.

Kimbo Slice wants to fight. And he'll fight you. If you've got his fee---$10,000 bucks is the going rate---he'll come to your house or place of business and fight you. If he wins, he gets the money. And believe me, he will win.

Kimbo is the star of 3 fight videos circulating the Internet. The first one occurs in the backyard of a house in Florida, I think. It doesn't last long. Kimbo tears the other guy---no pushover, by the looks of it---a new one. There's a freeze-frame shot that ends the video where it looks like the other guy's eye is pushed halfway out of its socket.

The second fight, he loses. He fights a Boston-area policeman named Sean Gannon. They fight in what looks like a basement or the space under a shop; someone's laid down a wrestling mat and padded the walls. Do I need to tell you it's bloody, and you better have a strong stomach if you want to follow the links I'll post at the end of this? I'm guessing that's fairly self-evident. I've found that things like this have a pretty razor-thin cutoff: either you're totally fascinated and have stopped reading and clicked on the links already, or you're disinterested and vaguely grossed out and have also stopped reading.

The third fight reminds me of LION HEART, that Jean Claude Van Damme movie, where Jean was a pit fighter and fought in drained swimming pools, in a racquetball court, in an underground parking lot. In the third video, Kimbo Slice fights some poor dude on an airstrip. Like, out near some hangar near the Lear jets and whatever. It's a quick fight. The sound Kimbo's fist makes hitting this poor guy, the one and only real shot of the fight, is one of the more arresting noises you're likely to hear.

[SEDGEWICK'S Corn Pads Radio Commercial, circa 1952]:

COACH: Good job out there today, Alex. You really smacked the cover off that baseball!

ALEX: Thanks, skip. Can I get you to take a look at something?

COACH: What's that, slugger?

[ALEX takes off shoes and socks and shows COACH his feet]

COACH: Great Leaping Horny Toads! Your feet are cratered worse than the surface of the moon!

ALEX [on the verge of tears]: Can you help me, skip? They hurt. They hurt real bad.

COACH [smiling benignly]: This old coach has got a few tricks up his sleeve [produces a packet of SEDGEWICK'S brand Corn Pads]. Slap these on, kiddo, and you'll be right as rain in no time.

ALEX: Are these the best?

COACH [chuckling]: Best and ONLY, tiger. Anyone who doesn't use SEDGEWICK'S Corn Pads are filthy hun communists and should be rounded up to rot in a gulag! Ho ho ho ho!

ALEX: Thanks, skip!

So, anyway, if you want to check out those underground fight vids, Kimbo Slice in all his glory, here are a few links. They won't work and I don't really need to tell you that, but you can find your way there.

http://discussitonline.com (This one you need to sign up for; takes literally 2 seconds. Lots of undergorund fight vids, on top of the Kimbo Slice stuff. Big time waster).

For Kimbo:
p214.ezboard.com/bkimbosliceforum

All best,

Craig

(Buy SEDGEWICK'S!)

PS: Regarding the Discussitonline site: needless to say, please---please!---be warned that there are some disturbing, and to some people offensive videos on that site. Skinhead beatings, awful schoolyard beatings, etc. Reaction to these will vary; it goes without saying that I don't condone or revel in those sorts of things. All fair warning.
Craig Davidson on 04.23.06 @ 10:13 PM EST [link]

Friday, April 14th

Cockroach!

...in my apartment!

Now those that know me, or read this blog, or see me walking down the street all tough and manly and practically exuding pure testosterone, that manly musk just seeping from my pores or else, on days when I'm particularly verile, spurting from me in a fine mist like from one of those aerosol bathroom air fresheners...you might think I wouldn't be bothered to find a giant cockroach in my apartment.

Well, my friends, you would be wrong.

Bugs disgust me. This probably goes back---as most fears do---to an incident from my childhood...

~~~~RIPPLE DISSOLVE~~~~~

Craig Davidson on 04.14.06 @ 07:15 PM EST [more..]

Sunday, April 9th

THE HORROR COMMUNITY

Hi All,

First off, my apologies for not updating more often lately. I'm in the home stretch of novel revisions, and quite frankly I just want to have done with it and so I'm dedicating all--ALL, by thunder!---writing resources, thinking resources (and of this I'm given a precious daily allotment) to getting it done. But after that I'm taking a fairly major break, and will expend most of my mental energies here in cyberspace. Topics will include: more beatings I have received; what's happening on the novel front (short film news); a killer blintz recipe, etc, etc. Okay, don't expect a blintz recipe. I'm only mildly certain of what a blintz even IS.

BOOK/COLLECTION NEWS: My novel is up for pre-order on Amazon.ca; only the Canadian site at the moment, listed as simply "Fighter". They'll tack a "The" to it later, but for now "Fighter". I lobbied for "Fighter!" but no, the exclamation point was disallowed. In addition, the Norton paperback version of Rust and Bone is up at Amazon.com, so you can order that if you'd like, though the hardcover is still available (oh, how it is available!) and at a reduced price. I think the softcover edition looks really cool; they got a dogfighting scene in there, which I'm all for (not dogfighting as a pursuit, but a cover that emphasizes that particular story). So hustle up and order those books; be the first on your block to own "Eeek---Fighter!" (I lobbied for this title as well, but alas...)

Before getting to the topic at hand, a link to a website of note. This one was brought to my attention owing to the fact that its owner/operator, "Maddox," has a book coming out and, simply by emailing his list of devotees, his book---The Alphabet of Manliness---shot to the #1 spot on Amazon.com. Well! I had to take a look at this dude who had such a rabid following; my search led me to "The Best Page in the Universe," a site he's had going since 1997. He updates it pretty frequently, like once a week, with a wide variety of topics sure to inflame those of a sensitive moral temperment. Me, I found a lot of his posts hilarious as hell---check the one out where he critiques kid's paintings. His style is the "rant," which I've come to see is a fairly popular style on blogs; people pick a topic and basically holler about how much it pisses them off. Maybe Maddox was the guy to kick that whole style off; maybe "ranters" everywhere owe him a debt of gratitude. Anyway, he can count me as a new fan. If you want to check it out:

http://maddox.xmission.com

Again, not for sensitive types---but then again, if you were a senstive type, would you be reading my blog in the first place? Vegetarians, animal lovers, jocks, nerds, feminists, old people, and cheap sports car drivers will all find something to offend them at this site.

Now, to the topic at hand...
Craig Davidson on 04.09.06 @ 11:01 PM EST [more..]